Review by Harold McFarland

My original review follows but since so many people are having problems with this product I thought I would share some helpful advice based on my experience. My original review was based on working with an XP machine and nothing attached but my video source, MP3 player and portable video device (one at a time). It worked flawless. Now that I have worked with it more I have had some of the same frustrations others have expressed but have located the source of the problem.

The software hangs, can’t be stopped using process manager or with any other tools, etc. However, this only occurs when I have my SanDisk usb thumb drive attached. As soon as I pull it out everything works fine. Plug it in and things hang almost immediately. Same thing with an external usb hard drive (Maxtor). As soon as it is unplugged everything is fine. Working without any usb hard drives it works perfectly. For me this is not a problem as I just work and save things locally and then transfer them to the usb drive later after closing the program if I really want it onto the drive. I’m guessing that is the difference between those who have glowing reviews and those who think it is trash with nightmarish problems. I have experienced both and at least now have control of the experience so I always have a positive one. Hope this helps others experiencing some of these problems.

*** Original review ***nInstallation of Easy Media Creator 10 was straightforward and I had no problems. After a quick reboot I was glad to find there are significant improvements over previous versions. Somehow they have added more options while increasing the ease of use. This is no easy task as added options just increase choices and the complexity of the program.

Of course it has all the basic features you would expect from a consumer grade product but it also has several more advanced items that you might not expect. While it does not reach the point of being an appropriate product for professionals, it never claims to be either. Instead it is simply one of the best high-end consumer grade media suites available. This being said it does not alienate the true novice but has many wizards and a clean interface so people with very little experience in media creation, enhancement, conversion, or other tasks can easily get the results they want.

The software did exactly what I had expected with just a few of exceptions. The HD and Blu-ray support is not as extensive as some other competitors. If this is a major factor for you then you may be disappointed. The AutoFix in the photo enhancement section did fix exposure and sharpness but the color correction could get severely off if there was also an exposure adjustment. I tried AutoFix on a picture of a Moon Jellyfish stranded on the sand. The clear jellyfish had some light tinges of color due to refraction of the sunlight. The sand was a dark gray color. By the time the AutoFix had adjusted the photo the jellyfish was appropriate but the sand was changed to a surreal bright purple. Finally, the propaganda for the product indicates that you can create ringtones from your favorite sound files. Despite the instructions in the help file I was unable to do so and found that one of the choices that, according to the help file, was supposed to be there after a right click was not one of the choices available.

On the other hand parts of the program worked better than expected. The panorama creation tool was one of the easiest I have used and did an excellent job. Of course, I did start with good photographs to begin with. For the video editor in you the package includes both CineMagic, a video editor directed more toward the novice, and VideoWave which is a more complete editor for more demanding projects. Finally, the audio conversion tools were excellent.

The bottom line here is this software is highly recommended to everyone from the novice user to the serious hobbyist. For this group of users it is the best suite of products I have worked with.